6′1″

"6′1″" is a song written by singer-songwriter Liz Phair and released in her 1993 debut album Exile in Guyville.

Meaning

Exile in Guyville was meant to be a song-for-song response to the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main Street.^[1][2][3] Since 6'1" is the first song on Phair's album it should correspond to the Rolling Stones' song "Rocks Off."

Form and Harmonic Structure

"6′1″" divides into three main sections. The first is an instrumental introduction in the key of F Major. The second section contains the song's two verses and is the key of E-Flat Major. The third section contains the two iterations of the chorus and is in the key of F Major.

The song's structure is somewhat unusual. Instead of the typical verse, chorus, verse, chorus structure that is common in rock songs, Phair sings two verses back to back and then sings the chorus twice. The harmonic structure is also unusual. While it is common in rock and roll to modulate in the course of a song, it is uncommon for a song to modulate down a whole step and then return to the original key; most songs only modulate up, and rarely return to the original key.

At the transition between the second verse and the chorus Phair uses the song's unusual key structure as a type of word painting. At the phrase "And all the bridges blown away keep floating up," the song modulates up a whole step, landing in the new key precisely at the word "up." Phair further emphasizes this effect by singing a rising phrase which ends on a high note on the word "up."

References